


I Can't See You

by otayuriistheliteralbest



Series: YOI Ship Bingo [6]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Theatre, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pliroy, pining otabek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-05
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2019-02-11 01:47:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12924717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/otayuriistheliteralbest/pseuds/otayuriistheliteralbest
Summary: Otabek pinched the bridge of his nose. One day, this school play would be over and he would be rid of the annoyance that was Jean-Jacques Leroy, star lacrosse player. He had been a thorn in Otabek’s side since the student theatre board had cast him, cooing over how perfect he would look as their Prince Charming. It didn’t matter that the guy didn’t have a lick of theatre experience, just that he was on the lacrosse team and looked ‘sooooo dreamy!’ according to the Theatre Club president, a senior named Viktor Nikiforov.





	I Can't See You

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to Lorindaa and Francowitch for beta'ing this fic for me! This was another prompt generator-inspired fic, where I was given the following prompts: 
> 
> Genre: Adventure  
> Character: An actor  
> Material: A guitar  
> Sentence: "I can't see you."  
> Bonus: Your character is fearless to the point of stupidity.
> 
> ...well, I got 3 out of the 5 in there, at least. Enjoy!

“I can’t see you, and therefore you are not able to see me,” JJ proclaimed loudly from behind the curtain.

“That’s not how it works and you know it,” Otabek said patiently, his arms crossed in front of him as he stood in the audience of the theatre. He tapped his fingers in a rhythmic beat against his arm, thinking, _What better way to explain to a newbie in the theatre?_

“Okay, stick your hand out from behind the curtain.”

JJ’s hand gave a little wave from the stage right wing.

“See, now I can see your hand right there. It doesn’t matter that _you_ can’t see the audience - if your hand can see the audience, the audience can see your hand,” Otabek tried to explain as patiently as he could for the umpteenth time.

JJ poked his head out from behind the curtain. “But how am I supposed to know that they can see my hands or my feet? My hands and feet don’t have eyes, so I don’t know when they’re showing outside of the curtain.”

Otabek pinched the bridge of his nose. One day, this school play would be over and he would be _rid_ of the annoyance that was Jean-Jacques Leroy, star lacrosse player. He had been a thorn in Otabek’s side since the student theatre board had cast him, cooing over how perfect he would look as their Prince Charming. It didn’t matter that the guy didn’t have a lick of theatre experience, just that he was on the lacrosse team and looked ‘ _sooooo_ dreamy!’ according to the Theatre Club president, a senior named Viktor Nikiforov.

“It does not _matter_...” He let out an exasperated sigh and looked up at JJ on the stage. “Look, try this. Stick your hand out again —” JJ ducked behind the curtain and did as he was told. “— and then crouch down so that your face is level with where your hand is when you’re waving it.” Again, JJ did as he was told to do. At least he took direction well. “See where your hand is sticking out, now, and how the audience can see it?”

JJ smacked himself in the forehead with the aforementioned hand. 

“ _NOW_ I get it,” he said proudly. He stood back up on the stage, his back perfectly straight as he did what he thought was a princely march onto the stage, but mainly just looked like an awkward duckling to Otabek.

“Can we get on with the rehearsal?” Came a voice from behind Otabek in the audience. He turned to face Yuri, his best friend and the poor sod stuck paired with JJ in _Sleeping Beauty_. Yuri had literally flipped a desk when he was asked to play the Princess instead of the evil witch, but had resigned himself to the role simply because he shone on stage and he knew it.

Otabek rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. The next few months were going to be hell on earth, from the diva in the form of a skinny teenage boy and a useless but charming Prince JJ. Otabek just hoped that he would live to see his senior year.

“Yes, Yuri, good idea. Let’s move on to the rehearsal, shall we?” Otabek said. He could feel his teeth clenching even as he said the words. “By now, the both of you should have memorized your lines for Act 2 Scene 3, so there will be no books on stage. If you need a cue, just call out ‘line’ and Minami here will call out your lines for you.”

Minami perked up in his chair, all smiles. He grasped a giant blue three ring binder in his small arms, bubbling over with excitement for the play. He quickly flipped through the script to the scene Otabek had mentioned. Minami was a freshman, and there were days where Otabek simply could not handle his enthusiasm. What had happened to him that a _freshman_ made him feel old at seventeen? He wasn’t ancient!

“From the top of the scene, let’s just run through the lines and then we will get into the blocking that I emailed to you both.” Otabek sat squarely in his seat, crossing one leg over the other knee as he watched what was sure to be a train wreck.

He winced all through rehearsal, as JJ called out for line after line. He had clearly not even tried to memorize the scene, and when Minami and Yuri had left for the evening, Otabek called him out on it. He didn‘t want to embarrass the actor, and he knew from first-hand experience that calling someone out in front of other actors was the worst possible blow you could give to their self-esteem.

“JJ, do you even _want_ to be in this play?” Otabek asked tentatively as JJ descended the stairs from the side of the stage. He rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. JJ looked up at him in surprise.

“What? Of course I want to be in the play! Where would you get that idea?” JJ asked. Otabek could tell that the other boy’s heart had sunk, hearing his words. He had to tread carefully.

“It’s just that... you’re always goofing off in rehearsals, and you have yet to finish memorizing your lines.” Otabek was exasperated but tried to be understanding. There had to be a reason why JJ wasn’t working at his lines. “Why did you audition for this show in the first place?”

JJ fidgeted, stuffing his hands in his jeans pockets and scuffing his foot on the carpeted floor. He leaned against the lip of the stage, trying to affect an air of nonchalance that he clearly did not feel.

“I don’t know how to memorize lines,” he muttered to his feet.

“...what?” Otabek asked, not sure if he had heard correctly.

“I don’t know how to memorize lines, okay? This is the first play I’ve been in since I was little, and all those plays we had our scripts in our hands! I tried Googling it, but there’s so much advice out there for how to memorize lines and they were all so conflicting, I didn’t know what to do!” 

Otabek’s eyes bugged out at this news, and he just barely managed to keep his temper in check. _Breathe in, breathe out._ He could handle this.

“This... would have been good to know a few weeks ago, JJ. Don’t just leave us in the dark, it isn’t respectful toward your fellow actors _or_ your director.” Otabek sighed, looking around the empty theatre. “Tomorrow’s rehearsal we will focus on line memorization. Every actor is different, so a method that works for me or Yuri might not necessarily work for you. Sound good?”

JJ flashed him his signature grin. “Sounds awesome, boss man. Thanks!”

   —

The rehearsal after school the next day was... an unmitigated disaster. Yuri couldn’t understand the difficulties JJ was having in memorizing his lines and just shouted at him.

“It’s not hard. You just _do_ it!”

Yuri stomped off to a corner to pout. In the end, Otabek sat down with JJ, who was looking down at his hands like he was going to cry. 

“JJ, try what I do. Take one line at a time. Read it over and over again until you have it in your head, and then go on to the next,” Otabek told him. “If you have a giant monologue, break it down into sections that are easier to remember. When I have dialogue, I like to record the other character’s lines with spaces in between for mine, and then I’ll just go through memorizing the lines that way. You’ll be able to go over the lines on repeat with the recording until you have them down, and you won’t have Yuri yelling at you to get your lines right.”

Relief flooded JJ’s face, and Otabek relaxed his tensed-up shoulders.

“That sounds great. I can do that!” JJ jumped up from his seat and ran off to the back of the audience with his script to do just as Otabek suggested.

   —

“Is that supposed to be _me_ ?” Yuri shrieked. JJ scrambled to stop the recording he had done to memorize his lines, but it was too late. “I do _not_ sound that high pitched!”

JJ blushed and fiddled with his phone. “I just needed to make the lines sound different, or else I felt like I was just talking to myself."

Yuri rolled his eyes at JJ. “It better help you memorize your damn lines.”

He stomped off to another part of the stage to help with painting the set. JJ didn’t want his recording to be overheard anymore, so he plugged in his earbuds and stuck them in his ears, closing his eyes and murmuring his lines along with the recording. He squinted at the script with one eye every time he messed up, rewound the recording, and started over.

There was a burst of laughter from backstage that he could hear over the recording, and Yuri made a horrified noise.

“This was a perfectly good shirt! Why’d you assholes have to splash paint on me?”

JJ turned to see his co-star slinking back onto the stage, middle finger raised at their tech guys, Emil and Mickey, who were bunched over with laughter. They both held paint rollers with light green paint, as they were working on the flats of the interior castle walls. That green paint could also be seen on the back of Yuri Plisetsky’s shirt and most of his left arm as he stormed back over to JJ.

“Fuck this, work on lines with me,” he ordered JJ, who snorted at the soaked-cat look Yuri was giving him.

“Okay,” he replied, pulling his earbuds out of his ears. He closed the script and shut his eyes to envision the scenes. “Where do you want to start?”

“Act One, Scene One is as good a place as any. You need to memorize _all_ of your lines,” Yuri replied. “And open your eyes, you look like an asshole.”

JJ twitched, but did as he was told.

Otabek stood to the side of the stage, not interacting but pleased with his actors. Maybe they would be okay after all.

   —

Finally, it was opening night and the narrator, a senior named Chris, proclaimed the last line of the play with a flourish.

“What a feast there was that night! In spite of the hundred years that had gone by it was still the Princess's birthday, and she was in reality no more than fifteen years old, for time had stood still for her. So she had her birthday feast just the same, and it was her betrothal feast too, for the King joined the hands of the young Prince and his daughter and gave them his blessing.”

Chris raised his arm high, showing the audience the scene before them, and closed the fairy tale book with a flick of his hand.

 _Ever the showman_ , Otabek thought with a grin from the back of the audience. Everyone took their bows, and JJ and Yuri stood center stage, waving for Otabek to come up. He shook his head and jogged down the aisle to the stairs, composed himself, and joined his actors onstage. 

Someone passed him the handheld mic, and he brought it up to his mouth with a small smile. Yuri wrapped his arm around Otabek’s waist, and JJ slung an arm over his shoulders from the other side. 

“Thank you, everyone. We have an amazing cast and crew in this show, and they all have worked so hard to bring this play to you as you see it. Thank you, Phichit and Yuuri, for writing such a moving script, based off of an older version of the story of Sleeping Beauty — your words brought this play to life! We’ll miss you when you graduate at the end of the year.” 

Yuuri and Phichit stood from their seats in the audience, blushing and waving at the audience in thanks, then sat back down.

“And thank you especially to JJ, who overcame his block on memorizing lines to create such a phenomenal character of the Prince.” Otabek glanced to his side, where JJ scratched his head, trying to hide his embarrassment. “And thank you to Yuri, for not killing his co-star in the process of rehearsal!”

The audience laughed, but the cast and crew merely shook their heads, knowing that it had been a close call at times.

“That’s it from me, have a good night everyone, and tell your friends to come see _Sleeping Beauty_! We have three more performances this weekend.”

The cast and Otabek stepped back as the curtains closed in front of them. Once they were sealed shut, everyone let out excited cheers and laughter.

Otabek extricated himself from the arms of JJ and Yuri and turned off the hand mic, handing it back to Emil to put away. He then clapped for attention.

“Good job everyone, let’s keep this energy up for the next three shows!” He said, a small smile on his face.

Yuri and JJ shared a look and tackle-hugged Otabek, kissing him on each cheek. He let out a small noise of surprise and fell to the ground, taking JJ and Yuri with him.

“Way to go, Mr. Director,” Yuri said, grinning widely.

“Yeah, no way we could have pulled this off without you,” JJ said, nodding his head at Otabek.

Otabek scratched his nose, embarrassed by the attention.

“It was a group effort,” he replied.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t get all shy on us now,” JJ said, poking Otabek in the side.

“Come on, let’s get cleared up and head home. We still have shows the next three nights, and they need to be perfect!” Yuri said, standing up from the stage. He held out his hands to JJ and Otabek. “And meet me at lunch to go over lines, JJ — I heard you flub that speech to the king!”

JJ just smiled and he and Otabek took Yuri’s hands, hauling themselves up from the floor and tackling Yuri in a group hug.

“Your wish is my command, Princess,” JJ whispered in Yuri’s ear, making the blond blush furiously and shove the both of them off of him. The rest of the cast and crew laughed, not having heard what JJ said in Yuri’s ear.

“You watch yourself, Mr. Not-So-Charming-Prince,” Yuri said, pointing his finger at JJ and retreating to the dressing room.

He hated that asshole. _So why was his heart pounding like it wanted to burst?_

   —

JJ paced backstage. It was the last night of the show, and then he would likely never see most of the people in the cast again. He didn’t see the theatre kids in most of his classes, and it was rare for them to interact with each other outside of rehearsals anyway.

His thoughts were on sparkling green eyes, flashing in anger and tempered when JJ got his lines exactly right. The approval in that gaze was more than JJ’s heart could take, and he could feel it clench in pain at the thought of never interacting with Yuri Plisetsky again.

“Ready to go on?” Yuri came up next to him in the stage right wing. “It’s the last show.”

JJ could feel his heart screaming at him to say something suave, but instead what came out was, “Y-yeah. Last show.”

Yuri looked up at JJ and gave the boy a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

“Break a leg out there, you’ll be great.”

JJ looked at Yuri’s retreating back, his stomach churning with nerves that weren’t related to the show at all.

   —

JJ walked up the steps to the dias where Yuri “rested” as the Sleeping Beauty, his eyes closed and long blond hair fanned out around his face. It framed his features so beautifully that JJ simply wanted to stare and admire him for a while. He looked to the audience, pain in his eyes that was not completely an act.

“What a beauteous rose. Her skin still warm as if in life, but I hear no breath from her lips and her breast is still like she is frozen in death.”

JJ turned and walked around the raised platform to stand upstage of Yuri and knelt on the step they had placed there for him.  He brushed a lock from the other boy’s cheek and admired the curve of his brow. He could see the curl of Yuri’s lips, twitching as he knew what was about to come.

There had nearly been a fist fight the first time they rehearsed the scene, JJ blushing furiously while Yuri shouted that he wouldn’t be kissing some trumped up lacrosse player. Otabek had merely rolled his eyes and explained how to do a stage kiss to the pair. Because of their positioning on the stage from the audience, it was so easy to fake. Their lips never even touched.

JJ didn’t think of any of that at this moment, however. The bright stage lights made everything else fade from view, zeroing JJ’s focus in on his co-star, sprawled delicately on the dias below him. The pale green gown he wore didn’t quite fit, though to be honest _nothing_ from the costume department quite fit. It showed a glimpse of Yuri’s collarbone, peeking out from the fabric. JJ wanted to brushed his fingertips against Yuri’s skin, chasing his collarbone into the fabric with his lips. JJ wanted to taste Yuri’s skin against his lips; he was sure that it would taste so sweet. 

JJ was lost in these thoughts, completely distracted and wanting nothing more than to taste Yuri’s lips, which had parted slightly for him to breathe. He bent over Yuri with that sole thought in mind, and tipping the other boy’s chin up, JJ tentatively brushed their lips together.

Green eyes snapped open in shock, and it was clear that Yuri almost forgot where they were. His upstage hand twitched as he stilled his movements. The sleeping princess did _not_ deck the prince, even if she should have.

JJ only realized what he had done a moment later, and he broke from the kiss, flushing furiously. Yuri’s eyes narrowed for a split second before he sat up gracefully, speaking loud enough for the mic to pick up.

"Is it you, my Prince? How long you have kept me waiting!"

He continued with the scene as if nothing had happened, much to JJ’s relief. They reached the end of the play, their final curtain call, and it was all JJ could do to keep himself on the stage and not slink away.

 _How could he have been such an idiot? How?_ JJ forced himself to go through the motions of the bows, the hugs and tears of his castmates after the curtain closed. JJ shuffled off into the wings, trying to disappear. Maybe they wouldn’t notice him missing from striking the set.

JJ leaned back against the rough brick wall backstage, letting the rough texture dig into his back to ground himself. He bent over to stare at the hardwood floor, memorizing the whorls in the grain and counting the lines running through it. He couldn’t bring himself to move any further away, but at least the curtains muted the sounds of the cast and crew on the stage. He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. He had just fucked up royally, and had probably blown everything in the process. JJ’s vision blurred, and he sniffed. 

He hadn’t realized that the feeling in his chest the past couple weeks was anything more than anxiety over the show. JJ had been so overwhelmed that he didn’t have the opportunity to step back and assess what he was starting to feel - the rare glow of Yuri’s smile when he got his lines right, the sensation that his heart was going to beat right out of his chest. The excitement he felt every day after school as he stepped into the theatre for rehearsal. He had fallen for Yuri Plisetsky. And now he would never see him again, because he had probably scared him away for life. JJ couldn’t even be friends with him, not after that kiss onstage.

“ _There_ you are.” It was Yuri. _Please, God, why was it Yuri? Why did_ he _have to be the one to find JJ?_ “You ran off without even saying goodbye. You know you’re not getting out of strike, even if I have to drag your ass back here myself.” 

“Wh-what?” JJ stuttered. He rubbed at his face angrily with his sleeve and cursed in his head when he saw that his stage makeup came off on the white sleeve.

Yuri sauntered up to JJ, making him shiver. It wasn’t fair that Yuri was so damn graceful. It made JJ want to sink his fingers into his blond, blond hair and pull him flush with his body. He crossed his arms to keep himself from acting on the urge; once in a night was more than enough.

“I said, you’re not getting away,” Yuri told him, poking his chest with one finger. 

“Are you going to hit me?” JJ asked, tears filling his eyes again and blurring his sight. “If so, please just don’t hit my face.”

“Why the hell would I hit you?” Confusion laced Yuri’s voice, and JJ didn’t know how to process that question.

“I kissed you.” JJ’s heart broke a little more. “I-I didn’t mean to, onstage, I don’t know what came over me, all I could think of was how the stage lights were hitting you just right and making your eyelashes glow and how perfect you looked, and I know I shouldn’t have done it and I’m so, so sorr-mph!”

JJ found himself interrupted by soft lips on his. Yuri pushed him against the wall, wrapping his arms around JJ’s neck and tugging him closer. It was messy and rough but made JJ feel like the broken pieces of his heart were coming back together as he forgot to breathe. He trailed one hand along Yuri’s jaw, the other at the blond’s hip, holding him in place. JJ lost himself in the feeling of this fiery boy in his arms, and he never wanted the moment to stop.

Yuri pulled back from the kiss to touch his forehead against JJ’s, panting.

“Don’t you fucking dare apologise to me for kissing me,” Yuri told him, a sparkle in his eyes. “Otherwise I’m gunna have to kill you.”

JJ grinned down at him, eyes still red from crying and yet filled with hope. “Never again,” he said, and dove back to pull Yuri into another kiss.

The two boys were so wrapped up in one another, they didn’t notice Otabek slinking away without a word, a shattered expression on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> Lines from the play inspired/pulled from this Open Source version of Sleeping Beauty: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25451/25451-h/25451-h.htm
> 
> I'm going to have this be my free square for YOI Ship Bingo to mix things up a ~little~. ;)


End file.
